Let the clean-up roll: Dirty downtown getting tidied up after Mardi Gras season

Mobile public works crews were out on Wednesday, March 5, 2014, picking up the litter left over during Fat Tuesday in downtown, Mobile, Ala. (John Sharp/jsharp@al.com).

MOBILE, Alabama – The city moved from letting the good times
roll on Mardi Gras Tuesday to letting the good feelings spread on Wednesday after
officials congratulated its work force for their efforts during the three-week
Carnival season.

"It was a great presentation for this city," Mobile City
Councilman John Williams said.

The work stepped up earlier Wednesday with Public Works crews
removing debris – muddied Mardi Gras beads, cups, uneaten food, beer cans, etc.
– from streets in and around downtown Mobile.

Bill Harkins, executive director of public works, said his
crews are working to get the streets cleaned up after the multi-parade schedule
on Mardi Gras Day. He said while downtown's streets "looked a little dirtier
than a normal day," he predicted by Thursday that everything will be completed.

"Come Thursday, you might not even know that Mardi Gras
existed here for a couple of weeks," he said.

Harkins said many of the barricades around downtown Mobile
will be relocated to the Trinity Gardens area for Saturday's 11 a.m.
neighborhood parade that will kick off at Chastang Middle School. More than
70,000 people are anticipated to be in attendance, according to Councilman Fred
Richardson.

It was unclear what has been spent on overtime in past years
within Public Works.

Harkins, meanwhile, called his crews the "unsung heroes" of
Mardi Gras. He said 250 crew members "pre-staged"
behind the evening parades to clean the streets by blowing off trash, removing
barricades and operating street sweepers and a truck hauling 4,000 gallons of
water that pushed debris off the roadways.

"It's all coordinated like an orchestra or a Marine Infantry
Reinforcement Company working through," Harkins, a retired U.S. Marine Corps
Lieutenant Colonel, said. "They work several hours in the evening, pack it all
up and on the next day, it looks like nothing went through."